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1994-05-04
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370 lines
--------------------------------------
Digital Aesthetics V2.5 UNREGISTERED
--------------------------------------
By Greg Grove
Freely Distributable
©1993 GVG Productions
--------------------------------------
Introduction from the Author:
-----------------------------
Digital Aesthetics is a program for WB2 and up which will simulate an
audio environment of your choice. The audio information to render these
environments though your speakers is encapsulated in files called "EMods"
or "Environment MODules"; two short ones have been put in this package.
With DA, you can control various aspects of these EMods, and link EMods
together in a list to be played in sequence. The interface allows much
flexibility in how EMods are played. Digital Aesthetics takes very little
processor time, and is meant to be used to provide a soothing background
in which to work. Additional EMods are available when you purchase the
registered version, (see DAReg.txt).
Requirements:
-------------
· ReqTools.library - This library is written by Nico (yes, Nico IS his
first name!) François and is freely distributable.
It allows for the nice file-requesters used by
DA. The newest version is enclosed.
· Commodities.library - This library is distributed standard with
WorkBench 2.0+. It must be present in the
LIBS: directory.
· OS2.0x or above - I wished to make use of the new features available
in the new operating system, so unfortunately
development of the 1.3-compatible version has ceased.
Apologies to those who do not have 2.0x or above.
Setting up Digital Aesthetics:
------------------------------
Double-click (from WorkBench) or 'Execute' (from CLI) the 'Install_Libs'
program. This script will install all necessary libraries into your 'LIBS:'
directory, if they do not already exist.
To install DA on your hard-drive, simply drag the DA2.0 drawer to a
directory on your HD of your preference. To add the EMods, drag the EMod
drawer onto a directory on your drive.
I M P O R T A N T
To be able to utilize EMod icons, you must add the following line some-
where in your startup sequence:
"PATH <directory where DA.exe is located> ADD"
Your computer must be rebooted for this to be in effect. After you have
done this, you may click EMod icons from anywhere and they will still be
able to find DA.exe!
(No CLI Arguments or WorkBench Icons are parsed in the Unregistered version!)
Starting up:
------------
Once DA and its files are settled into place, double-click the DA icon,
or call it from CLI. A window bearing the familiar Digital Aesthetics logo
will appear. This window posesses numerous gadgets, each of which is
explained in the following section. A unique aspect of this program is
its (sometimes sarcastic) status line. Located at the bottom of the main
DA window, it will contain text to update you on the current status of
the program, as well as any events that took place not important enough
for a full-blown requester.
The Gadgets:
------------
Using a system I call KOBAL (no, not the archaic computer language;
KOBAL is an acronym for 'Keyboard Oriented Button Activation Link'),
you can activate almost any button with the keyboard as though you
were using the mouse! The key you must press is denoted by a line
under a character of the button's name. Holding down the key causes
the button to be held down. If you decide you do not want this button to
be put in action, press another key without releasing the original key.
Then release both, and the operation was cancelled! Gadget descriptions
follow:
· Chip - A Read-Only Chip memory meter. Chip memory is what DA
uses the most of as EMods, when loaded in, will occupy it.
Keep track of your Chip memory with this meter
· Fast - This shows your current free amount of Fast memory. DA
will use Fast memory whenever possible, but, again, Chip
memory is its primary hunger. However, the EMods have
been designed so that they will NOT take up more than
200K of precious Chip.
· Total - Your total amount of free memory is displayed in this
gadget.
· Settings - This button will bring up a window allowing you to choose
the general settings and defaults for DA (which will be
saved in the prefs file)
· Play - This is a cycle gadget which allows you to select how
EMods are to be played. Possible selections are:
Once - Only one EMod will be played over and over.
Sequence - Your list of EMods will be played in sequence.
Once the end of the list has been reached,
DA will start from the top again.
Random - Your EMods will be played in a random fashion.
Because I got tired of predictable random number
routines, I wrote one which would base its
numbers off of the current time!
· Open Window on Start-Up - Not checking this box will prevent DA
from opening up its main window the next
time you run it. Instead, it will check
your prefs and simply start playing EMods!
If DA encounters any errors along the way,
(e.g. you haven't selected any EMods to
play in the prefs file), the Main Window
will open anyway, with a sarcastic comment
awaiting you in the status line!
· Use Title-Bar when Playing - If selected, a small 'Title-Bar' window
will appear when EMods are playing.
This bar will display some items of
information. When the EMods are
loading or decrunching, it will notify
you. (Future versions will have a
graph of how much has been loaded in
this title-bar). Also, the name of the
current EMod as well as its playing
time will be shown. If you are playing
EMods in sequence or at random, pressing
return will skip to the next EMod.
· Flash Pointer when decrunching - This will simply flash your pointer
when DA is decrunching a compressed
EMod.
· Use Double Buffering - When playing EMods in sequence or at random
DA will be loading the next EMod to be played
before the EMod currently playing is finished
if this box is selected. You should only
consider this if you have adequate free
memory. If you do not, DA will not begin
loading until the EMod currently playing is
finished and its memory released. This
option will only really be of interest to
those running off floppy drives.
· Defaults - This button brings up a window which will allow you to
define traits which all EMods will be given as defaults
when they are added to your list. Information on these
traits are given in the 'Edit' gadget explanation.
· Use - To save the settings you have chosen in memory, press this
button. For your settings to be saved to disk, use the
'Save Config' menu item under the 'Project' menu. (See
the section 'Menus')
· Cancel - Pressing this will cause the settings you spent your
precious time selecting to be lost. Note that the
'Defaults' window has separate 'Use' and 'Cancel' buttons.
If you select 'Cancel', but you 'Use'd your defaults,
they will not be lost.
(Back to the Main Window Gadgets...)
· About - This button will reveal program information.
· Hide and Play - This will, with all of the settings and EMod(s) you have
defined, begin the playing procedure! If you have no
EMods, the status line will notify you! (See the section
'Playing EMods')
· Add - A file-requester will appear, from which you are to select EMod(s)
to be added to your play-list. Once you have done so, they will
be checked to make sure they are valid, and have the default
settings applied to them.
· Del - The currently selected EMod will be removed from the list,
(not deleted physically). If the EMod is resident, the
memory it is using will be freed.
· Clr - All EMods in your list will be removed if this button is pressed.
· Swap - To get your play-order fine-tuned just the way you like it,
you can swap two entries in your list! Select one EMod, press
'Swap', select another, and the two will switch positions.
· Edit - This button will bring up the EMod-Editor window. An explanation
of the gadgets this window possesses follows:
· Name - The name of the EMod you are editing!
· Path - This EMod's full pathname.
· Size - How much Chip memory this EMod will take when playing.
· Type - Shows what kind of EMod this is.
· Make Resident - This button will make the EMod being edited
resident in memory. Its data will be loaded from
disk and safely stashed in memory. Further accesses
to this EMod will look in memory. Pressing this
again will free the memory it used. You should
have a plentiful supply of memory to make use of
this feature. If an EMod is resident, its name
in the Name gadget will be followed by an asterisk.
All resident EMods will go to chip memory so this
option really should only be considered if you
have 1 meg of chip or more. If DA cannot allocate
chip memory at any time, ALL resident EMods will
be removed from memory. This feature had been
disabled in the Unregistered version.
· Default Settings - This button will apply the default settings
to this EMod.
· Volume - This slider determines the relative volume the EMod
will play at.
· Pitch - You may alter the relative frequency of the EMod
with this slider.
· Time - The time (in minutes) this EMod will play can be chosen
with this slider.
· Use Low-Pass Filter - Checking this box will turn on the filter
when playing this EMod. (The filter will
reduce the anti-aliasing distortion sometimes
present, but will reduce the clarity as well)
· Use - Applys these settings to your EMod.
· Cancel - Will dispose of these settings. (Note that the Window's
close gadget will always act as a 'Cancel')
Menus:
------
DA does not have many menus at the moment. There are two main menus:
Project
· Load Config - This will revert your settings to those saved
in 'Da.prefs'. (This feature is disabled in
the Unregistered version.)
· Save Config - This will save your preferences to a file called
'DA.prefs' in your 'S:' directory. The EMod
list, the EMods' preferences, the general settings,
and your selected defaults will be saved to this
file. Thus, the next time you load up DA, you
will find it in almost exactly the same state
as you saved it! (This feature is disabled in
the Unregistered version.)
· Quit - This terminates the DA program. The close gadget on the
Main window shares this function.
Help - (Menu has been disabled in the Unregistered version.)
· Open Regular Doc - This menu item will execute the CLI command:
'muchmore DA.doc'.
· Open AmigaGuide Doc - This item will execute the CLI command:
'amigaguide DA.guide'. Both forms of
documentation run asynchronously (ie DA
can still be operated while the documentation
is running.
Playing EMods:
--------------
When you select the 'Hide and Play' gadget on the main window, the
process of randomizing and playing EMods will be initiated. If you had
selected to play EMods once, the EMod that was selected before DA went
into the playing state will be loaded in and sent through your audio-
channels forever (or until you bring back the DA main window). If you
had selected to play EMods in sequence, the first EMod on the list will
be loaded and played for the duration you selected. After it has
completed, (or almost completed if you selected to Double-Buffer), the
next EMod in the list will be loaded, and so on. If you had selected
to play EMods at random, the same process as playing in sequence will
be executed, but EMods will be chosen at random. (Note that when I say
'load', 'decrunch' is applied in addition, if applicable). To get back to
the main window, you can press the right mouse button, (if you have a title
bar window), press the Hot-Key (Left-Alt, Left-Shift D), or use Commodore's
'Commodities Exchange'.
For best sound:
---------------
· Use Mono, not Stereo sound. EMods are not designed with stereo in mind.
· Do not have your output device's volume or bass level too high
· Use a 100+ Watt Stereo!!!
Alternative execution of Digital Aesthetics:
--------------------------------------------
If you want to play one EMod quickly and easily, simply click its icon.
DA will be loaded in and disregard the EMod list in the prefs file. It will
start playing that EMod (in title-bar form if you had so selected in the
prefs file). From CLI you can use the syntax 'DA [EMod]'. Multiple EMods
are not yet supported from this type of execution.
Big thanks to the following people:
-----------------------------------
Teijo Kinnunen - For the freely-distributable player-code
Nico François - For the freely-distributable ReqTools library
Steve Augustine - For the AGA testing
Lance Farrell - For some ideas to be implemented
History:
--------
V1.0 - First PD release. Simple interface.
V2.0 - ShareWare Release for 2.0+ only. Lots of new features.
V2.5 - Refined look. Redid the EModPrefs structure to be less
problematic.
Last Word from the Author:
--------------------------
I hope that this documentation has covered everything you need to know.
If you find any bugs or are uncertain of how to utilize a certain feature
of DA,
write to: or call by modem:
Greg Grove Metropolis BBS
PO BOX 4361 (503) 389-5404
Sunriver, OR 97707-1361 14,400bps/24 hrs
